


Cat Got Your Tongue?

by fromthirtyfive



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Damn, Gen, Self-Indulgent, Talking Animals, i'm just excited to publish this i've been writing since april, the first chapter of the story is pretty much the end of the story, the second chapter is for their conversation, wrote this way back in april
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 09:46:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27349123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromthirtyfive/pseuds/fromthirtyfive
Summary: A talking cat helps officer Aomine Daiki in finding the whereabouts of model Kise Ryouta.
Relationships: Aomine Daiki & Kise Ryouta
Kudos: 3





	Cat Got Your Tongue?

**Author's Note:**

> heeey so like in the tags, the first chapter of the story is pretty much the story itself. the second chapter is a conversation between the officer and the model. i was just excited to finally post this! hope you enjoy!

Officer Sakurai Ryou’s cooking never disappoints. Without waiting for the person who cooked it, officer Aomine Daiki munches in, sitting in front of the tv with the news on. Naturally, as a police officer, he has to be eyes peeled on anything happening. 

But then his phone buzzes beside him, which took his focus out of the tv to check his phone, swallowing rice and meat. In the midst of checking a text message sent by an old friend, his ears could pick up the word  _ kidnapped _ from the tv. 

“That’s really awful, Imayoshi-san,” Sakurai’s voice cuts in just as Aomine pressed  _ send _ . “He’s actually being talked about in the news right now, here in Tokyo.”

“Huh?” Aomine almost chokes and returns his attention to the tv, food almost done. 

“He has been reported to be missing after a schedule in Nagano. Eyewitnesses say that he was alone at that time.” Tokyo’s local news reporter says, a picture beside her head. 

“That famous model from Kanagawa, huh.” Aomine picks at his ear. His disappearance might shock many since he’s very much loved by many. 

He would rather not think that his company blew this out of proportion just to gather attention. But he wouldn’t want to think of the worst. 

“Put it on loudspeaker.” Aomine tells Sakurai, picking his food once again to finish it once and for all.

Doing so, the familiar and obnoxious voice of his superior, Inspector Imayoshi Shouichi, could be heard in the apartment. “Who’s that with you?”

“Why, it’s your favorite junior, who else could it be?” Aomine jokes, taking a drink of juice placed on top of the table. Then Aomine turns more serious. “Any news on that model?”

“Police in Nagano are sent out to look for the famous model since that was the last place he was seen. CCTV’s are being checked at the moment.” Imayoshi chooses to not nitpick on the  _ favorite junior _ part. 

“To think that it’s days before he’s sent out to New York as Japan’s model representative.” Sakurai laments, sitting by the couch behind Aomine.

“Not going to eat?” Aomine asks him, preparing to switch channels, but Sakurai snatches the remote from him. 

_ Later _ , Sakurai mouths at him, still on the phone with Imayoshi. 

“Still, the police advise anyone in the nation who has a clue of his whereabouts to immediately call them--us.” A shuffle could be heard in the background of Imayoshi’s line. “Talk to you later, got something to do.” Then he hangs up.

Aomine groans, then yawns. This is Sakurai’s apartment but he's feeling so much at home right now. He knows Sakurai doesn’t mind. “I don’t like day-offs. It makes me even lazier and I don’t get anything done.”

“To think that you were the total slacker back in high school, Aomine-san.” 

“Well—” The sound of keys jingling on the other side of the door makes him sit upright in a flash. 

“Are you still afraid of her?” Sakurai's amused looking at Aomine standing up and grabbing the plate he just used and bringing it to the sink. 

“Naaah, no way.” 

The door opens, and enters Sakurai’s girlfriend. “Officer Aomine.” 

Maybe just a little. 

After washing his plate and utensils, Aomine immediately leaves Sakurai’s apartment. Supposed to be, he should have left when he returned Sakurai’s notebook. However, Sakurai, ever the kind creature ever since high school, offered him food. Who was Aomine to say no to such a generous invitation?

Now that he’s out of Sakurai’s apartment, he has no idea what to do. Maybe he can ask some of his friends for some basketball. Aomine clicks his tongue. His friends, however, are in different parts of Japan. Chef Murasakibara Atsushi may be free today but he resides in Akita. Shogi player Akashi Seijuuro lives in Kyoto but he was travelling around the world playing chess. Aomine’s sure as hell shogi and chess are different (though Shogi is dubbed as Japanese Chess, there are still significant differences) but knowing Akashi, it doesn’t make any difference because in the end, he knows Akashi will win regardless. 

The two people in Tokyo with him are doctor Midorima Shintarou and teacher Kuroko Tetsuya, but the latter was said to be sick at the moment, and the doctor who says it was the former. Automatically, he can’t just have Midorima be excused from his job just to play ball with him. 

Man, he remembers how easy it was in high school. One call away and they’re gathered around to play. Adulthood sure is hard. 

Two girls pass by him and he hears bits of their conversation.

“Poor Kise-kun, I’m so worried!”

“I hope he’s alright.”

Speaking of Kise-kun, maybe he can do some research on this guy. Day-offs doesn’t stop him from doing his job. 

He takes notices of a cat not far from him, licking itself. From the corner of his eye, he sees a cyclist talking to a phone and he was going towards the cat. Looks like neither was aware of the impending doom they’re about to meet.

Aomine frowns. Quickly, he swoops the cat up, of course in a manner that doesn’t give the cat a heart attack. 

He makes a gesture for the cyclist to stop. Fortunately, he did without any argument.

With the cat embraced in his right arm, his left hand reaches behind him to present his badge. Though he encounters a bit of difficulty since his badge is always situated in his right pocket but he thinks nothing of it. 

“Good morning, officer, what can I do for you?” Huh, seems like this guy’s familiar with him. He’s aware that he’s a cop. Then there should be no further introduction.

Nonetheless, Aomine shows his badge to him. He still has to act stern for the safety of this cyclist, the cat, and the surrounding people. “You shouldn’t really be talking while biking. Whatever vehicle you’re maneuvering, you shouldn’t talk to the phone. You could have run over this cat over here and cause some trouble.”

The cyclist blinks at the feline in the arm of the officer.

Aomine could see how his ears went pink. “I’m terribly sorry! It was my mom I was talking to, but I realized I should have stopped.” He bows. “This wouldn’t happen again.”

“You better make sure of that.” This time, he places his badge in his left back pocket for the time being. 

A thought came to him. As the cyclist prepares to leave, Aomine asks, “Hey, do you have any idea about Kise Ryouta? Anything could be of help.” Maybe this guy was a relative, a friend, or an enemy. It’s a small world, after all. 

He saw through his peripheral vision that the cat’s ears perked up at his question. 

“Ahh, I’m sorry, officer, but I have no clue. I just heard about the news a while ago.” He looks up to him. “I-I hope I’m not a suspect—!”

“Don’t sweat it, I’m just asking for any possible leads.”

The cyclist lets out a sigh of relief, genuinely glad to hear that. “Thank you. I’m sorry, again, for y’know, almost causing trouble. I hope you guys find Kise Ryouta!” And he pedals away. 

Aomine checks the cat for any collar or something. 

“I know about Kise Ryouta.” He hears a voice near him. 

“Really?” Aomine looks up but nobody was looking at him or anything. An old lady walking stops because he looked up. 

Awkward, Aomine quietly laughs. The old lady notices the cat in Aomine’s arms and coos. 

“Why, that’s a cute cat you have there, young man.” She smiles at the cat. 

“I know, right?” There goes the same voice again. 

This time, Aomine looks at the cat. The latter appears to look smug and proud. 

Aomine is  _ dumbfounded. _

Aomine must be losing his mind.

“Grandma, I-I just noticed your groceries!” Aomine decides to help her. He doesn’t want to believe that the cat he was holding was actually capable of articulating words. Not a chance, nope. “Do you want me to help you with that?”

The old lady laughs. “Gladly! What a kind young man you are!” 

He helps her cross the street and decides to accompany her until they arrive at a restaurant to meet up with her nephew. Naturally, he brings the cat alongside him. He wanted to make sure if he was indeed going crazy. Even if he wasn’t, he’ll still bring it to a nearby pet store or something. The cat had no collar, after all. 

Now that he noticed it, the cat was really light. The only thing heavy was the groceries of the old lady he volunteered to carry. Now, he  _ really _ needed to take it to a pet store.

On the way there, the old lady talked all sorts of stuff, like how it’s really admirable that he was a police, how she’s glad someone like him is a cop, how much the cat is really fluffy and cute, how she doesn’t like her nephew’s girlfriend, and how she always wanted to have twelve cats in her home. 

She then sighs, stopping for a while, signalling that she was getting tired of all the walking. “I feel bad for the poor sonny, what was his name again? Ryouta-kun?” The conversation once again changed. 

Aomine also stops and once again, the cat’s ears perk up. 

“Kise Ryouta, you mean?” 

“My nephew sometimes mentions him. Imagine how worried his parents could be.” She grieves for him. They start to walk again. “Will the police ever find him?”

Her nephew, huh? “If you don’t mind me asking, what is his job?”

But the cat interrupts, wiggling under his hold. “I said I know something about Kise Ryouta!”

“Hey!” Aomine bellows, trying to keep it under control.

Shortly afterwards, his annoyance turns to confusion when the old lady merely pets it on the head. “Why, such a noisy cat you are!”

Aomine cocks his eyebrows, looking at the cat. Was he the  _ only _ one who could hear this cat?

“We’re here!” The old lady cheers as they stand in front of a fancy restaurant. She reaches out to take the groceries from him but Aomine shakes his head.

“Let me accompany you inside.” Then he sees the sign where it says  _ NO PETS ALLOWED.  _ He looks at the cat. “Oh.”

He could leave the cat but this cat contains information he may need. Crazy as he may but he needed to know some details. 

The old lady giggles. “That’s okay,” She faces the entrance of the restaurant, which has glass doors, and exits a guy wearing dark shades of clothing and a white mask. He's holding a paper bag with the logo of the restaurant. “My sweet nephew’s already here.”

The bows at the old lady. “Granny, I bought us food.” 

Aomine furrows his brows. Granny? Isn’t she supposed to be auntie or something? Or was it a joke between them?

“Oh, I have the sweetest nephew!” She squishes his face. In the midst of it, his mask goes down and Aomine recognizes him. 

The guy gasps and proceeds to yank the mask back on his face. “Granny!” His eyes shift to Aomine and back to her in a frantic motion. 

“Oh, don’t sweat it! He might not recognize you.”

Aomine’s mouth twitches to the side, not knowing whether this old lady was kidding. “Well, it’s hard not to recognize him. After all, he is the famous actor named Hironaka Juichi.” 

She laughs and waves a hand. “No need to worry, he’s a cop!” She turns to Aomine. “Thank you so much, young man.”

“No sweat!” He gives the bag of groceries to the old lady’s nephew. 

They go their separate ways. Aomine sighs. It’s no wonder the nephew mentions Kise Ryouta: they were both famous people in Japan. 

Then a paw touches his cheek. “I know you can understand me. I have the deets when it comes to Kise Ryouta. Listen to me!”

Aomine drops the cat out of surprise. He bursts to the cat, who stands on its paws without a hitch. “What kind of Neko no Ongaeshi shit is this? Am I the only one who can hear you? Why on  _ Earth _ are you talking? You’re a cat, for fuck’s sake!” 

The cat licks itself and stares at Aomine with its green eyes. “It seems that way. The nice lady didn’t understand me.” Then it grins up at him, baring its fangs at him.“This is perfect—”

But Aomine still stares at the cat with disbelief. “Can you really talk?”

The cat slaps its paw on its face. “Hey—”

Aomine picks the cat up under its arms and stares at it. “I’m going to bring you to my house because people will look at me  _ crazy _ when they see me talking to a cat.”

“Hey, that’s normal.”

“No, it isn’t.”

When they arrive in Aomine’s apartment, the cat proceeds to make itself comfortable on Aomine’s jacket laying on the floor of his bedroom.

“Hey, hey. No, no, you can’t just—” Aomine sighs as he holds a bag of chips. Whenever he’s intaking information--be it by reading or listening, he always focuses better when he’s eating. “Whatever.” Maybe this cat works best while being on top of someone else’s clothes.

With the cat laying on his jacket, Aomine has just noticed how messy his bedroom was. It really showed that after days of work, he could get really lazy and just throw himself on bed.

Or maybe his high school habits still remain after all those years. 

“Alright, cat, talk.” Aomine starts to munch on the chips, sitting by a chair. “What do you know about Kise Ryouta?” He never envisioned himself asking a cat about a case. 

“I was in front of a shoe store, just playing with some worms until I saw a guy talking to a phone. He was saying, ‘ _ Are you sure the cat is safe? The boss will get mad if the cat’s injured. Where are you, anyways?’ _ Then the dumbass proceeds to say the location out loud.” The cat starts, going to a much more lax position, making sure to be real cozy on top of the jacket. 

“Where?” Aomine asks, slowly chewing on the chips. 

“A motel nearby. It’s kind of called... _ Aroyamadai _ .” Okay, Aomine is familiar with the motel. “He said something along the lines of a  _ parking lot _ . I thought at first they were talking about a real cat, so I was concerned and went there as fast as I could to save the cat.” 

Then the cat grins, stretching from its initial position. “Who would have thought I’d see a person knocked out in a car with tape on his mouth? Blonde hair and piercing, right?”

Aomine nods. This cat is the real deal. The cat continues. “At first I didn’t recognize him, but hearing from the gossip of other people, I put two and two together and realized I just saw a person post-kidnapped.” 

“How’d you even see him? And how many people were with him, anyway?”

“Do you have some water? I sure am thirsty.”

Aomine’s right eye twitch. From the corner of his eye, he sees a water bottle on the floor. For sure, it’s half-empty but he’s too lazy to go outside. 

Aomine snatches the water bottle beside his bed and pours the content in the cap. “Well, aren’t you special?”

“I know my worth, thank you very much.” The corners of the cat’s mouth twitch, eyeing the process and very much pleased.

He places the cap in front of the cat. He grumbles, “Cannot believe I’ve encountered such a pompous cat who has the answers in this case. It even talks!”

The cat narrows its eyes and tears its gaze from the bottle cap. “Do not refer to me as  _ it _ . I am not an object.” The cat straightens its back as if it was royalty. “Do refer to me as Master.”

“Just get on with the story!”

But the cat takes its time. Instead of continuing, it drinks from the water first. Slowly, as if to  _ mock _ Aomine. 

It sure is workng.

Aomine leans back on his chair in frustration, a loud and irritated groan escaping him, the bag of chips laying on his lap.

“Oh, don’t be so impatient.” The cat gives him a wide grin, not yet finished with the water. “You’ll  _ love _ what I’m about to say next.”

“Get on with it.” Aomine moans, still leaning back on his chair. 

“I know where they’re currently staying at.” The cat just drops this information bomb on him. It’s what he asked, though.

It took time for Aomine to process what has been said. He stands upright, blinking multiple times. “Say what?”

“You heard me—”

“So they didn’t stay in the motel…” Aomine mutters to himself, scratching his chin with the hand he didn’t eat with. 

“I know the exact location. I followed them there.” 

This is working in their favor. Too much. Aomine is feeling confident. 

The thing is, who would believe him? He can’t bring this cat as a witness. They wouldn’t understand him and they might think Aomine is slowly losing it. 

An idea struck him. “Can you perhaps write everything? Just so I can present it to the station.” 

But the cat didn’t think it was a genius idea. It looks at Aomine with the most unimpressed look it could master. It raises its paw and claws makes its appearance. “Do you think I can physically do it?” 

“You don’t have to hold a pen, for fuck’s sake. You can just dip your paws in ink and just draw kanji!” Aomine demonstrates with his own hand.

“They would suspect you of teaching me in doing that. Some people can do that.” 

Aomine sighs, a little frustrated at his plan being rejected. “It couldn’t hurt to try.” 

“Officier, you  _ know they _ would never believe  _ me _ \--a cat.”

“Where—” But then he hears his doorbell ring. 

He furrows his eyebrow, wondering who could be interrupting this very important moment where he asks more. His plan had just been rejected, but hey had the exact location. The cat knows where Kise Ryouta is being held hostage. 

Looking out the window, it turns out it was his friend Momoi Satsuki, lightly bouncing on her toes with her hands behind her back. 

Then it all comes back to him and he curses, “Shit, I forgot.”

“The place’s behind a motorcycle shop, by the way,” The cat babbles on just as Aomine’s stands up, resulting in the bag of chips falling to the floor. He scrambles to pick any kind of coat to wear. The cat continues, “You know that place with the owner having the color yellow by the end of his hair? The building in front of it, that’s the place.”

He cranes his neck to check the clock. “Oh, shoot, didn’t realize the time.” 

The cat snickers at him. Aomine has a watch but he chose to look at the clock. 

“We’ll talk about this later—”

“Or you can bring me along.” The cat suggests as it just watches Aomine run around his room. 

He looks at the cat with scrunched eyebrows, not fond of the idea. “You’re literally not needed there. I just need to accompany—ahh, just stay here. I won’t take long at all.”

Aomine’s out of the room with a slam. 

Opening the door, he’s meet face-to-face with Momoi.

“I might have figured you might have forgotten our little outing.” Momoi teases.

He forces a laugh. “Ha! No way.”

Then she cocks her head to the side out of curiosity because her eyes caught something. “I never knew you had a cat, Dai-chan.”

Aomine spins around to see the cat looking innocently at him. The cat gives Aomine his familiar grin, a signature of satisfaction of messing Aomine over. “Surprise.”

“Aww, well aren’t you the most adorable!” Momoi walks past Aomine to squat down to the cat’s level and present her hand to him to gain its trust. 

Aomine facepalms. He's sure that the cat was still inside the room. Those pesky paws of his sure know how to work.

Momoi waves at the cat, standing up. “Bye, kitty! Come on, Dai-chan.”

But the cat doesn’t stay in the apartment. It exits along with them. 

In Aomine’s head, he was cursing the cat while he was locking his apartment. They still weren’t done with the interrogation. As early as today, they have to save Kise Ryouta. Who knows what could happen to him. They don’t have all day.

But as Aomine faces front, the cat assures him.

“Don’t twist up, officer. I got my own digging to do.” And off it goes. Aomine catches on to what the cat was saying. It simply did not want to wait in the apartment while Aomine’s still gone.

“Aren’t you worried he’ll be lost or something?” Momoi asks, concerned for the cat she just met.

Aomine sighs, scratching his head and trying to clear his mind from Kise Ryouta for a while. “The cat can handle itself. Let’s go, Satsuki.”

Days earlier from now, Kuroko promised Momoi he would accompany her to buy some decorations for an event her company was hosting. Unfortunately, Kuroko was sick. As Momoi’s long time best friend, Aomine tells her that he’ll be the one to accompany her. Plus, he knows how much she’ll be carrying. 

“So, I remember you saying it was a send-off party.” Aomine starts the conversation. He remembers it from the chat between Kuroko and Momoi. “For who in particular?”

“Well, it was originally for Kise Ryouta-kun.” Momoi answers him as they walk side-by-side. “But--ahh, wait.” She stops in front of a taiyaki stall to buy some. “You want some?”

“Naah just ate at Sakurai’s.”

After buying, she continues the topic after she bought food. “Their company wanted us to organize a send-off party since Kise Ryouta will be travelling to New York as Japan’s representative.” 

“But he’s missing.” He finishes, to which Momoi nods.

“I think they already have someone in mind to replace him. We still have no idea who it would be, but we’re sure of it since they still push through with the party.”

Aomine hums in response. It was a short moment of comfortable silence but Momoi asks, “Do you guys have any leads?” 

He contemplates his answer, his eyes catching sight of a cat, but it wasn’t the cat that could help him. “I have.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.” He could hear the relief and the faith in her voice. 

Once they arrived in front of the shop Momoi needs to attend to, it was as if they were strangers. After all, she needs to talk with the supplier. 

While Momoi was looking around, Aomine does his own little thing: looking at the various kinds of decorations in the store. Even with the interesting objects present in front of him, he couldn’t help but watch the tv that the store owns. How convenient for him. 

At first, it was a commercial endorsing a foreign restaurant. The next thing he knew, it was a commercial of Kise Ryouta.

This guy is just everywhere. 

It was one of his many commercials. This commercial in particular was encouraging people in being physically active. He was playing basketball to show that.

“Anything to keep your heart going!” Kise said with his charming smile just in time for the ball being shot at the net. 

Aomine clicks his tongue. He doesn’t know if this guy was actually playing basketball. He wonders how many times he threw the ball to even land a shot, or if it was someone else who had to do it for him.

Turning his attention away from the tv, he focuses on the magazine rack beside the cashier. Of course, the cover of the page of a magazine has Kise Ryouta in it. Some magazines had their plastic covers removed. This was one of them. 

Again, this guy was just everywhere. 

Glancing over the words on the cover page, he soon finds out that there was a section of the magazine that includes an interview with the models of Kise’s company, Glamence Agency. 

Quickly, he picks the magazine up and goes to the page where the interview is. Scanning, his eyes drop to Kise Ryouta’s name, with the questions he answered. 

But his attention leaves Kise Ryouta’s section of the page. There was one where another has mentioned him

**Why did you enter the modeling word?**

**_When I was down, I saw Kise-san at tv. He had this smile that assured me, like everything was going to be okay. He has always been about strength and confidence. I truly admire that. I wanted to smile, too._ **

**_Kise-san has always been my inspiration ever since I was in college. Even though I’m older than him, he’s been in the industry far longer than I’ve been in it. Truly, he’s an inspiration._ **

Aomine looks for other models’ answers to check if they mentioned Kise Ryouta. 

Only this Niwa Mitsuru mentioned him.

“Dai-chan, it’s time to go.” Momoi’s voice cuts in. 

Aomine’s head snaps up, raising the book along. “Yeah, I’m going to have to buy this. My sister’s birthday’s coming up.” 

After paying with what they’ve bought and plastic bags being held by Aomine and Momo, the latter lightly bumps her shoulder to his arm with a small smile. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, Dai-chan.” She was clearly referring to his “sister” excuse.

“What can I say, my  _ sister _ loves that guy.” 

After escorting Momoi back home, Aomine is back in his apartment. 

There were no signs of the cat.

“Yet.” Aomine says aloud to reassure himself. If that cat doesn’t come back, he swears…

To be sure that the cat has access inside (he was not going to stand up and open the door for that cat), he opts to open the window by the living room a tiny bit just so it can enter all it wants. He just hopes that this particular cat would be the only cat to enter and no other animals would take this as an invitation to enter his abode. 

He checks the time on his watch. 1:57 in the afternoon. He gulps, bringing out his cellphone from his front pocket to call someone.

As of the moment, he has an idea of where his whereabouts were thanks to the cat. If he could recall correctly, the cat said something about the building being in front of a store with the owner of it having yellow in their hair. 

“Hello?” Imayoshi says in the other line. 

“Imayoshi-san, have you found anything yet?” He asks, sitting on the sofa and putting the phone between his right ear and shoulder. He brings the magazine he recently bought out of the paper bag.

“Negative, but we can assure that Kise Ryouta is still in the Kanto region.” 

It was such a waste that he didn’t get to ask the cat how Kise went from being in Nagano to ending up here in Tokyo. He flips the magazine open and goes back to the page of the interview. “Is his mobile phone dead or something? That could have been plenty helpful.”

**Why did you enter the modeling world?**

**_In middle school, my friends and I were joking around with the mascots of ramen shops and all that. We were posing and stuff, exposed to the eyes of people. The next day, someone came to our school and offered us a place in modelling. Of course, I had to consult my mom first, she would kick me out if I agreed to anything rash. My mom wasn’t really against it, but I could only do it during summer. They promised me a good pay, so I accepted it to help my family out since my mom is the one providing for us._ **

“He left his phone back in his apartment, which is kind of funny. He has a total of five phones and he managed to bring  _ none  _ of them.” He could hear the slight frustration and disbelief in Imayoshi’s voice. 

“Imagine the salary.” Aomine jokes, moving on to another question. 

**If you weren’t a model right, where do you imagine yourself?**

**_I would be a pilot! It’s really cool to maneuver an airplane but I understand the burden of flying in unfamiliar territory, namely the sky. Like, one wrong move, we’ll be falling! That’s scary! So I salute the pilots, really! That’s why I’d choose to be a pilot if I weren’t a model. I can help someone reunite with their loved ones who are in another country. I can help someone go to a new place full of opportunities!_ **

“Whoever the perpetrator or the people behind this, they sure managed to slip between the cracks.” Imayoshi mentions. 

Aomine smirks. That’s what most think but they didn’t slip past the eyes of a cat. Truly, a crime without a witness, not even by an animal, would be impossible.

“Why do you ask, by the way?” 

“Nothing in particular, really. I’m on my day-off. Can’t help not acting.” Aomine shrugs even if he knows there was no one in the room with him. 

Or so he thought. 

“We’ll talk another time. Bye.” Then Imayoshi hangs up. It was a habit of his senior, to just hang up so suddenly. Back then, he would hang up without any “bye” or something. But Aomine can’t really blame him. Imayoshi must be doing something regarding this case, or maybe even another case. 

He rests the phone beside him and goes back to reading again. 

**Anything you can say--**

“Are you his fan now?” 

He drops the magazine and he sees the cat in front of him. Those wide and innocent eyes staring up at him. 

The eyes that can save Kise Ryouta’s life. 

“I’m not his fan. So, did you do anything productive today?”

From those interviews, Aomine could scratch the surface about Kise Ryouta’s character. It’s cool how he has an alternative job in mind, and a pilot at that. Aomine never thought of another job that wasn’t being a police officer. It’s what he had always imagined ever since he was a kid. 

The cat scoffs. “Of course I did. What do you think of me? It is you I’m skeptical about. However,” It eyes on the magazine that was on Aomine’s lap. “Maybe you were, too.”

It clears its throat, sitting straight. “I went back to the place where he’s currently put in. He’s still there actually. But the thing is, we have to act quickly. They said they were going to bring him to Kyoto, midnight sharp.” 

So he was right upon thinking that they have to save Kise Ryouta within the day. But why Kyoto, though? Looks like he has to call Akashi for something. 

“Regarding your plan about me writing anything, let’s say it did work. But you still have to do some persuasion. We’re just going to waste time there. We have to put immediate action. It has to be right in front of them so they can move already.” 

Before Aomine can say anything, the cat keeps talking, waving its paws. “And I just got the plan, officer! I tell you, it’s foolproof!”

____________

So this foolproof plan of this cat involves Aomine calling a few people to meet in front of the place that Kise Ryouta was in. Those people are Inspector Imayoshi, Senior Police Officer Wakamatsu Kosuke, Firefighter Kagami Taiga, and Event Manager Momoi Satsuki. The cat asked for people of this rank specifically.

“What’s so special that Officer Aomine called us here?” 

“What, I can’t my treat seniors for some dinner?” He asks in a light tone when Imayoshi and Wakamatsu approach him. 

“Where we even eating?” Wakamatsu asks. 

“Oh, I have a place in mind.” No, he doesn’t. Two were already here. All that’s left were Kagami and Momoi. The latter was by far the most important to be here right now. Without her, then the four men with her would be completely useless. Aomine would have to resort to plan B but it wouldn’t be as easy as plan A.

Aomine looks at his watch. “Let’s wait for two of my friends.” 

“Alright.” 

They wait a few more minutes and it was still the three of them at the meeting place. 

A ringtone chimes in between them and it was Wakamatsu’s. 

Again, Aomine checks his watch. “Where are they?” He mutters under his breath. He looks up to the entrance. Even the cat hasn’t come out. 

“Really? Someone has leads?” Wakamatsu asks in disbelief. 

Even without saying a name, both cops knew what Wakamatsu was talking about. 

“Imayoshi-san, he said the victim’s being sent to Nagasaki later by nine.” 

Where was Wakamatsu getting this? Who was talking to him? Aomine is starting to doubt. Who’s lying, the cat, or the person on the other side of the phone? If it were the cat, it would make sense that he hasn’t come out. But if it were the person on the other line, what could be the reason? Why Nagasaki, out of all the places? The cat said Kise was going to be shipped to Kyoto by midnight, and Kyoto’s on the complete other end of Japan.

That’s when it dawns to Aomine: could it be that they were luring them away from the original place? 

Imayoshi checks his watch. “It’s already seven. Have they sent some people already?” 

“Yeah--” Aomine snatches the phone. 

“Send them back!” Aomine yells at the phone. Other people are startled by his sudden outburst and they stop to stare.

“Asshole, the fuck are you doing?” Wakamatsu fights for the phone. “Kise Ryouta’s life is in danger!” 

“Stop this, you two!” Imayoshi attempts to break them off apart. “Aomine, what’s gotten into you?” 

The phone wasn’t on anyone’s ear but Aomine still pushes the agenda of not sending absolutely anyone because Kise Ryouta is just in the building in front of them.

A large sound comes from above them. It was the sound of a glass breaking. Looking up, the shadow of something falling could be seen. It was large and it fully covers the glare of the sun. 

Aomine recognizes it as the cat biting on a piece of clothing. The phone was then fully out from his grasp and Wakamatsu was just ready to fight him right here and now.

“I’m sorry I’m late!” Aomine has never been more glad to hear Momoi’s voice. 

Momoi shrieks when a furry cat falls on top of her face and something covers her whole head, enveloping the cat and her head in darkness. “Get off of me!” 

The cat scrambles to get off her. Its claws scratched a bit of her face in the process. She yanks the clothing away from her head and glares at it. “Wait a minute.” 

While Wakamatsu was chewing Aomine off and Imayoshi still forcing them to stop embarrassing themselves, it was only now that he understood Momoi’s important role in this plan. 

“This is Kise Ryouta’s jacket!” Her voice was loud enough to catch anyone’s attention and interest. 

“Hey, Ms., what do you mean Kise Ryouta’s jacket?” Wakamatsu forgets about Aomine for now and proceeds to ask her. “How can you say so?” 

Whispers and chatters float through the air. The name Kise Ryouta seems to erupt this. 

“We were having a meeting and he wore this--” A lightbulb on Momoi’s head as she realizes it, gripping the fabric even tighter. “It was the day he was reported missing.” 

“Where’s the damn cat?!” From the garage of the store, two men emerge and they were visibly mad and they had scratches scarred on their faces. They did not see the cat but they saw the jacket in the hands of Momoi. 

One of them throws a whole tire towards her. The other takes a taser out of his pocket. 

They are out to hurt other people. Maybe even resort to murder. 

But Aomine is ready. He catches the tire with his hands and fuck was it heavy as shit. 

The one with the taser lunges at Aomine but Aomine uses the tire as a shield and a weapon at the same time. It would be entirely helpful against the taser. 

Aomine did not anticipate pepper spray, though. “Fuck!” He yells and blindly swings the tire. He blinks fast but it hurts too much. 

While Aomine is vulnerable, the two policemen with him spring into action. Momoi calls on other bystanders to help her in carrying Aomine to safety. 

“Let me go, those bastards--” 

“Be quiet for a moment, Dai-chan! You’re incapable of fighting! You can’t even open your eyes.” The last sentence is gentle, almost as if she was scared that her best friend would go blind. 

Aomine tried opening his eyes to encourage blinking but his eyes feel so swollen and sensitive. Involuntary tears well up and fall down his cheeks. “It hurts, Satsuki, Goddamit.” His hands move up to rub his eyes but Momoi’s quick to stop him. 

“Here.” Someone offers Momoi their water bottle. “I just bought it. It’s clean.” 

Meanwhile, Wakamatsu got one of them pinned down and handcuffed. It was the one with taser and pepper spray. Both weapons were tossed to the side. Imayoshi managed to knock the other guy unconscious. 

“Everybody okay? Nobody injured?” Imayoshi asks the people around them whilst cuffing the man. 

“I already called the police and an ambulance for the officer.” One citizen tells him. Many had already fled for their own safety but some stayed behind to capture the whole thing or to help Aomine.

“Thank you.” Imayoshi says and at the same time, the accomplice of the guy he cuffed shouts, “Fuck you!” 

“Tell that to the judge.” Wakamatsu struggles to keep him in place. 

Imayoshi lifts the guy’s upper body up so he can sit down against the building and not be uncomfortable. Then he hears “Look out!” as he’s propping the guy up. 

He looks up just in time to see a chair falling towards him at high speed. His reflexes were faltered and he can only manage to squint his eyes at it. 

But the chair never reached him. It was halted by the gripping of a hand by someone tall and strong. 

“What is the meaning of this?” Firefighter Kagami Taiga looks up--Imayoshi does too--catching sight of the figure retreating away from an opened window.

Kagami was quick to act and run towards the building. Of course, after setting the chair down. 

“Imayoshi-san, are you alright?” Wakamatsu approaches him. 

Imayoshi wonders why Wakamatsu is up and standing when he was just holding a man under his grasp. Imayoshi had not realized that other policemen and an ambulance had already arrived. 

“Where’s Aomine?” He remembers that his co-worker’s injured somewhere. 

“He’s already on his way to a hospital. His friend’s with him.” 

Another officer comes in and takes the guy away. Only then did Imayoshi realized the marks on the guy’s face. Scratches. 

Both of them enter the building to search if there were even more suspects in the building. 

“This place’s just filthy.” Wakamatsu wonders aloud, disgusted at the place he’s in right now. 

Then they hear a meow. Their heads snapped to the direction of the sound. They find a cat in a room with its door wide open. They disregarded it and opted to look for other rooms. 

But the cat demanded attention. It meows even louder and more frequently. 

“My God, this cat is loud--” Wakamatsu turns his whole body in the direction of the noisy cat. But the cat was no longer standing in the room. He witnessed how a body comes crashing down in the room, struggling and writhing. 

“Holy shit.” Imayoshi swears and they ran off to help the person. 

Today’s events just got added up. From getting a call that Kise Ryouta was being shipped off to Nagasaki by nine in the evening, having Aomine fight Wakamatsu over the phone, a cat falling on top of Aomine’s friend, having the jacket of Kise Ryouta in their sights, fighting two men, to seeing Kise Ryouta tied and gagged with their own eyes. 

“Holy shit.” 

_____

“I can’t go home yet?”

“The doctor said you had an allergic reaction with the spray.” Momoi answers Aomine who has bandages around his head to cover his eyes. “Upon inspecting the pepper spray that attacked you, it had cayenne pepper in it, and you’re really allergic to cayenne pepper.” 

“Am I going to be blind?”

“No, no.” Momoi grabs a hold of Aomine’s hand and caresses it. “The doctors are just going to keep you here and aid your eyes until you can open them without any difficulty.” 

“And exactly how long is that?” 

“For as long as you can recover.” This time, Momoi uses two hands to envelope Aomine’s hand. “Don’t worry, Dai-chan. Kise Ryouta is now safe, they are interrogating the guys that’s involved in this, and Wakamatsu-san and Imayoshi-san had no injuries.” 

“And Kagami? Damn that idiot for being late. Is he safe, too?” It’s so uncomfortable to Aomine for being awake yet he’s incapable of seeing anything right now. His eyes still feel sensitive until now. Damn cayenne peppers

“He’s safe, don’t worry.”

Aomine sighs and sinks deeper into his hospital bed. He wonders about the cat, too. What happened to that feline? Who knows when he’ll see a cat like that again. 

“You should rest.” 

“I don’t want to. God, I’m going to get bored. I can’t see! Satsuki, tell me stories.”

“Stories?”

“Yes, stories, anything. Indulge me or whatever. I can visualize them in my head, easy.” 

“Alighty, then.”

And that’s what Momoi did for her friend. She talked and told stories to him. Mostly, it was just her recalling events in her life. She didn’t have anything in mind, only indulging Aomine whilst the world’s dark all around him. 

“I should have known that the minute you stopped nodding, you’re already asleep.” Momoi sighs and stands up to stretch. Aomine’s position hasn’t changed since she started. He remains unmoving with his hands clasped together. Momoi even had to move her ear closer to his mouth and nose to check if he was still breathing. While doing so, she realizes there was no need when a loud snore erupted from him. 

A knock on the door causes her to jump back. She moves a little distance away from him, to her previous place. 

The door opens to reveal the doctor that has been treating Aomine and he has a little paper in his hand. “Momoi-san! Seems like your friend has finally slept.”

“As he should be.” 

“You see, I came here because the young, poor man--Kise-kun, right? He wanted me to give him this letter,” He shows him the paper. “He advised me that only Aomine-kun should read the letter. Perhaps a letter of gratitude.” 

“I’ll be sure to give it to him.” Inside, Momoi feels soft and giddy inside. She remembers the time when they were still young, how Aomine would proclaim that he would save millions of lives as a police officer and fight crime and evil. 

“ _ Dai-chan? Are you crying?” 9 years old Momoi asked her friend, who had just approached her. She drops the ball she was holding to comfort her friend.  _

_ “Matsuna-san broke his leg.” Aomine sniffed a snot running down his nose. “He fought off the bad guys that stole from Ikaru-baa-san’s store.” He scrunches his eyes as he recalls it. “He was so cool! I want to be like him?” _

_ “Breaking your leg?” _

_ “Saving other people and fighting bad guys!” _

Aomine would be glad to hear this. 

**Author's Note:**

> aaaand that's my first ever knb fanfic and as always, indulgent! take care always and I'm hoping you'll wait for the second chapter of this story. the second chapter actually answers why kise was taken, so I'm hoping for your patience <33


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